Last updated on August 22nd, 2018 at 11:36 am
Grissini are generally pencil-sized sticks of crispy, dry bread originating in Turin and the surrounding area in Italy. Love them with beer… ’nuff said.
Thank God it’s the weekend. Started off in the morning by making my dinner rolls and that wasn’t enough and I was trying to figure out what else to do. Now I love bread sticks, so I have this recipe for these thin bread sticks called grissini. If you’ve never had these before, you’d love them.
Grissini is basically pencil sized dry bread sticks that are crispy. You can sprinkle whatever you like on them, like sesame seeds, poppy seeds or salt. I sprinkled mine with sesame seeds, as I prefer them over poppy seeds.
To make the dough, first we need to get the yeast ready, so in the bowl of your mixer, add the water, yeast, sugar and 1/2 cup of the flour. Mix well, and let the yeast sit until it bubbles up and rises. After this, add the oil and mix well. In another bowl mix the flour and salt and mix it. Gradually add the flour to the yeast mixture and whisk until the dough gets thick enough that you cannot whisk anymore. Remove the whisk and turn the dough over onto a floured surface. Continue kneading for about 8 minutes. Alternatively you can use the mixer to mix the dough, using the dough hook, for a few minutes. Place the dough onto an oiled bowl, and rub some of the oil all over the dough.
Cover it up with a clean towel and place it in a warm spot. Let the dough rise, until it doubles in size.
Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Now this is the time consuming part of making grissini, but once you get the hang of rolling out these bread sticks, before you know it, you’re done. Cut the dough into small pieces and roll each one out into long sticks. Do not add flour on your work surface, that will just make it difficult to roll them out, I just rubbed a bit of oil on the counter and this made rolling them fairly easy. You will get about 4 cookie sheets full of grissini. Brush the egg white on each grissini and then sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame seeds.
Bake in a preheat oven at 375 F degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes or until they are nice and golden. Cool on wire rack and enjoy. They go perfectly with a nice glass of cold beer. 🙂
If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!
Bread sticks (Grissini)
Ingredients
- 300 ml water lukewarm
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour you can use whole wheat flour for these
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg white for brushing
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
Instructions
- I started off by proofing the yeast, so in a big bowl add the lukewarm water, sugar and yeast. Whisk well. Add 1/2 cup of the flour to the yeast mixture and whisk well. Let the yeast activate for about 10 minutes. It should bubble up and rise. Add the oil to it and mix.
- In another big bowl mix the flour with the salt. Gradually add the flour to the yeast mixture and whisk until the dough gets thick enough that you cannot whisk anymore. Remove the whisk and turn the dough over onto a floured surface.
- Start kneading the dough and keep adding the remaining flour. Knead for about 8 minutes then place the dough in a oiled bowl and let the dough rest in a warm place for about 30 to 40 minutes. You can use your mixer, instead of kneading.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Place the dough on your floured surface and cut the dough in small pieces and roll out into pencil size sticks.
- Place the bread sticks on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with sesame seeds and salt.
- Bake in the oven until they are nice and golden brown, about 15 – 20 minutes.
- This recipes yields about 8 dozen bread sticks.
These were delicious and everybody loved them! I made a lot of bread before, but this was my first time making breadsticks. I used your recipe as a base and experimented with different flavors. I separated the dough into 4 parts and flavored each differently while kneading. First batch I added 1/2 tsp each of thyme and garlic; second batch 1/2 tsp each of smoked paprika and garlic; third and fourth batches I kneaded with rye flour, egg washed, and sprinkled with nigella seeds (kalonji or habbat al barakah). I also sprinkled all batches with salt. There was consensus that the nigella seed ones were the best!
I have a question: what is the best way to store these overnight?
Thank you soooo much for the recipe Jo!
I just bought some nigella seeds and I am now dying to try these with nigella seeds. 🙂 Well usually these go pretty fast so we don’t really have to worry about storing them 🙂 but I would just place them in a ziploc bag or an airtight container and store them in the fridge.
There’s a restaurant in the town I live that serves these as apps. My guy and I usually consume more than our fair share. Won’t he be surprised when he comes home from work and finds these delightful treats waiting for him. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Hi there,
They are awesome, enjoy!
I have to really thank you for this recipe, I tried these grissini this weekend and turned out absolutely delicious. Thank you so much.
I’m glad you tried them, I know I couldn’t stop eating them when I made them.